Category: Food

I mean, I know that they are seen as a misogynistic symbol of women’s bondage to the home from the 1950’s, but DANG.

They are useful.

Okay, a little about me. I am as low matience as they come. Well, I shower and generally try to take care of myself, but I don’t wear make-up every day and I don’t do my hair every day.

Except my hair is a pixie cut right now, so not like anyone could tell.

Anyways, I only like to get dressed ONCE. And I don’t like changing my clothes thirty times a day. If I change into my PJ’s, thats it. I’m home for the day.

Here’s where the aprons come in. I would get dressed in the morning, but I have a notoriously bad habit of wiping my hands on my jeans or whatever is close. By the time we decide to leave the house, I look like I have lost a fight with a Kitchen-Aid.

Snot, flour, other unmentionable crud is strewn all over my person.

And because I like to get out of the door as quickly as possible, and apron was the perfect solution.

A little history on the Apron:
did you know that originally Aprons were used because it was easier to wash an apron (like hand wash in a tub of water) than to wash a dress all of the time. Dress could (and often were) worn several times before they had to be washed because it was such a pain in the rear to wash them.

Hence Aprons.

So I’ve become a convert. I wear an apron all morning while I am making breakfast, doing dishes and various other chores around the house. When I am done with the messy stuff, I can take it off and VOLIA, I am relatively presentable.

This way I don’t have to change my clothes anymore than I have to. It still chafs my tender soul to change for a work out, but I really hate stinky smelly clothes and I don’t have enough PJs to wear them for workout clothes as well. Sigh.

Anyways, It is raining here so here is an Awesome Chocolate Chip Scone recipe I found from the website Sally’s Baking Addiction. She gives a ton of tips for baking scones and they turned out AMMAAAZZZZING. I just ate one and I want another.

I think rain calls for sitting by my wood stove and reading books until I am comatose. Think my kids will go for that?

After I was done in college I was able (and luckily enough) to take a trip in Europe. I went to Vienna, Salzburg, Prague and Munich. It was AAAAAAHHH-MAZING.

One of the first place we went after we landed in Salzburg was a little chain deli. I remember the experience vividly because I was freaked out by being in a country were I didn’t speak a word of the language and we were trying to order some lunch.

Whatever I ordered they were out of, luckily my friend was able to understand enough German to get that. I was completely clueless.

So I quickly picked something else that would work, a Tuna sandwich, even though Tuna wasn’t my favorite. I was able to get the message across and the language crisis was over. Whew.

I used to panic a lot when I was first figuring out the world in my twenties. Especially when I traveled. Living in the UK for a year was enough to give me panic attacks for MONTHS before I moved there.

Anyway, back to the story.

To my surprise, I really liked the Tuna Melt. I wasn’t used to tuna sandwiches hot with melted cheese on top. The only problem was it was slightly cold in the middle, but there is no way with my insufficient German to be able to make any kind of complaint.

Since then I do like a good tuna melt every once in a while. Maybe just to fix it the right way.

I love popcorn. If I run out of popcorn I have a nervous breakdown.Seriously. One day we ran out of popcorn and I just about had a melt-down. Then I found the back-up popcorn I had stashed in the pantry and we were saved.

Yes I have back-up popcorn.

The first year of our marriage, my hubby was amazed at how much popcorn I eat. Just about every night.

Actually, it is pretty good for you if you don’t drown it in butter.

A note on popcorn types. Not all popcorn is created equally. For basic every day popcorn I like Orville Redenbacher. It is kind of spendy, but it isn’t full of old maids (unpopped popcorn) or hard, kernally popcorn. It is more tender and fluffy than the store brands or cheaper stuff you can get. Gourmet popcorn is nice too, but I have to order it online and it is usually a bit out of my price range. Orville Redenbacher is usually a pretty good happy medium between price and quality.

The Perfect Popcorn

3 tbsp oil

1/3 cup popcorn kernels.

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 quart heavy bottom saucepan (with a lid)

2 tbsp of melted butter

Heat the oil in the sauce pan over medium-high heat. Put about 3 kernels in and wait until all three pop. Then add the rest of the popcorn and salt and shake it really firmly to coat all the popcorn in the oil and salt.

Crack the lid, so that the steam doesn’t drip on your popcorn. Leave it alone and wait until the popcorn is popping about 15-20 seconds apart. You can give it a shake if you want to , but I find that it doesn’t need it. It usually takes about 5 minutes, but listen just in case. Burnt popcorn is not yummy.

Pour it out into a giant bowl and drizzle with the melted butter. Use the bowl you melted the butter to stir the popcorn. Then it is time to chow down. Nom, nom, nom…..Everyone at our house LOVES popcorn, so we fight over it until it is gone.

This is a pretty good Soda to go with it:

This stuff is 100 calories a bottle and sweetened with agave AND its organic. My favorite is the Ginger Blossom, but don’t dis the Lemongrass flavor. Yummy. Our local Organic store has these as well as a local organic burrito place. We might live in the sticks, but it is touristy enough we have a few trendy places around here.

Put the kids to bed, kick back on the sofa, pull up a warm blanket, turn on the fireplace and watch something on VidAngel. Or Netflix, but VidAngel has new releases for a dollar. Shoot, I should really be getting paid for all this free advertising I’m doing!